2014 Mazda6: A Smart Marriage of Design and Tech

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By Lance Ulanoff2013-07-17 19:09:10 UTC

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Shopping, if done right, is a marathon, a slow steady race to the finish line, where you embrace a brand-spanking-new purchase. You must have patience, endurance, tenacity and the ability to remember everything you saw along the way.

I’m a terrible shopper.

I assume every shopping excursion is a sprint — or better yet, a relay race. Run in, grab something, run out and hand it off. If I am forced to shop, I do it as quickly as possible, making snap decisions that don't always result in victory or satisfaction, but always signal completion. A good shop is one that's over.

When it came time to buy my first new car in a decade (not counting the family car, which is my wife’s), sprinting was not an option. No, the search for my first real 21st-century car required a steady jog, trotting from one dealership to another, spending hours on auto web sites over a four-month period.

My last car, a 2003 Hyundai Elantra, was built in this century, but its interior and technology certainly owed more to the 1990s. Case in point: It still included a tape deck. I had to pay more for a CD player; it was considered something of a luxury option. There didn't have satellite radio — because there was no satellite radio. Sirius had launched less than 12 months earlier and hadn't found it way inside cars yet. The car didn’t even have anti-lock brakes. Again, if I wanted “luxury,” I was going to pay a whole lot more.

The more time I spent thinking about cars, the more I realized that I wanted amenities that revolved around my view of the world, as a place of connectivity and digital information. I wanted the big screen that was now prevalent in virtually all new cars and the Bluetooth that would connect my digital world (and my phone) to the mobile one in my new car. When I started to look at new cars this way, it helped narrow my choices — at least a little bit.

Time to Shop

My wife, who is the champion shopper in the family, began nudging me late last winter to buy a new car so we could hand over our Elantra, which was still in awesome shape, to my teenage son. I hate change, but I must admit that I got a little excited about the possibility of new car. In recent months, I spent more and more time talking to auto manufacturers cooking up some incredible technologies for their latest vehicles. These new cars were more computer than machine.

When I bought that Elantra in 2003, no one considered carts as rolling gadgets. Some had LCD readout screens, but none larger than my thumb. Since then, auto manufacturers have figured out the art of the engine. A suspension is a suspension. No one cares about rack and pinion or power-steering anymore. Air conditioning is wonderful, but it's a feature in every single car.

Obviously, some old-school differences still exist, like engine size and power. I learned all about liters (say, 1.6 versus 2.5), cylinders (say, 4 versus 6) and, of course, horsepower. My Elantra never had much pep. One way or another, I knew that I wanted pep.

Handling mattered to me as well, so as I began to test-drive cars, I paid more and more attention to how the car felt while driving. Interestingly, innovation plays a big role here. I test-drove a Nissan Altima with something called Xtronic CVT or Continuously Variable Transmission. Apparently, this is a wholly new way of handling gear shifting. In my test-drive, though, it felt like the car controlled deceleration, rather than me controlling it.

Choices, Choices

I knew I wanted a sedan with ample room for my long legs and comfort for my passengers. I didn’t want a hybrid, mostly because I think they’re still too pricey (Tesla? Awesome but awesomely expensive, so the answer was no), but I did demand good gas mileage. These features were all pretty easy to find and allowed me to spend a lot more time looking at the tech options inside each car.

Month after month, I test drove models ranging from a Toyota Corolla to the Chevy Impala and Malibu, to the Volkswagen Jetta and aforementioned Altima. Most salespeople were kind and helpful, some were pushy and others were young and inexperienced. The smarter salespeople always let me test-drive loaded vehicles. These cars boasted every amenity, which usually meant I was instantly smitten (another reason I’m a terrible shopper). One salesperson, who shall remain nameless, took me out in a stripped down Ford Fusion. With so little tech and pizazz, I felt like I was driving a taxi.

After having driven more than a half-dozen cars but feeling no closer to the finish line, I was winded and tired of shopping. Sensing my despair, my wife suggested we look at the 2014 Mazda6. "2014?" I thought. "Isn’t it a bit early to be selling next year’s car?" Still, I liked its cheek and found the idea of a "car from the future" alluring.

I won’t bore you with the details (contemplation, negotiation, financing), but we quite quickly decided on the completely redesigned 2014 Mazda6. The four-cylinder, four-door sedan is incredibly stylish — distinctive, even, just powerful enough, extremely comfortable, priced right and full of cool and useful technology.

With 30 MPG city and 38 MPG highway, it more than fulfills the fuels economy requirement. Loaded — I bought a Grand Touring Model — it’s still under $33,000. Plus, it’s bathed in technology both outside (SkyActiv, another next-gen engine, transmission and chassis technology) and in.

Inside the Cockpit

The inside of most new cars feels a little bit like the cockpit of a jet fighter: all curved windows, knobs, buttons, gauges and readout screens. The 2014 Mazda6 is no exception, as it surrounds you in comfort and technology — some of which you can’t see until it sees for you. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Much to my annoyance, some of the cars I test-drove didn’t know how to marry analog and digital in a seamless and natural way. Not so with the Mazda6. The dashboard has an analog odometer and all-digital gas gauge and trip stat screen; they look quite different and yet, somehow related.

The center of Mazda digital technology, though, is its 5.8-inch touchscreen set neatly in the center of the dashboard. It’s not the largest screen I saw among all the cars I considered, but was certainly one of the cleanest and easiest to use. The tabbed interface includes Tom Tom-based navigation, Sirius Satellite Radio (I easily activated a free four-month trial by calling a phone number as I sat in the car), CD player, AM/FM radio (including HD radio), Pandora radio, USB (the port sits in a compartment between the passenger and driver seats), and Bluetooth-based hands-free phone and audio control. Since the Tom Tom navigation has lifetime map updates, a removable SD card is nestled in a small compartment beside the steering wheel.

That same screen operates as a rear-view camera screen. As soon as I put the Mazda6 in reverse, the screen switched to the view behind my car. This isn't new, but newer cars like this add a few helpful twists. First of all, a yellow and red overlay tells me the proximity to objects behind me, whether I’m getting too close (the red zone) and my alignment to a curb or in a parking space.

All-Seeing and All-Knowing

The best part about new cars, though, is the sensors. The right-hand view from my parking spot is almost completely obscured by tall hedges. As I was backing out the other morning, the backup camera quickly showed a clear path behind me. Then the screen lit up with two orange warning lights and the car emitted three warning beeps.

At first, I didn’t seen anything, but less than a second later, a car drove by (I saw it in the display). As soon as it passed, I prepared to back out again, when I got another alert. Sure enough, a second car passed by. I waited, then started to back out once more. Then, you guessed it: another alert and another car. My street has never been so busy, but even more amazingly, sensor technology can now see around the hedges and down the block for me.

Like other cars I test-drove, the 2014 Mazda6 is also equipped with blind-spot detection. A car’s blind spot is the area where, even when using the side-view mirrors, you can’t see the cars next to you unless you actually look over your shoulder. Now, whenever I drive on the highway and signal my intention to change lanes, the car lets me know — using a little yellow light in the corner of my side-view mirrors and an audible in-car beep — if some idiot is driving in one of my blind spots (please don’t do that).

One of the 2014 Mazda6’s most impressive feats of self-awareness is Smart City Brake support. When traveling at roughly 20 MPH or less, the car can sense when another car has abruptly stopped in front of you. If you don’t break, the car begins braking and decelerating automatically. The car will also intervene if you inadvertently accelerate when an object (say, a bicycle) sits in front of you. I haven’t had the opportunity to try out this feature yet — which, in a way, is a good thing.

Phone Book Overload

Not every piece of technology is perfect. Thanks to Bluetooth hands-free calling, I can initiate or pick up a call by pressing the phone button on my steering wheel and talking to the car. First, of course, you must connect the phone via Bluetooth and import your contacts. Part 1 went well: the car now instantly pairs with my phone whenever I get in the driver's seat.

Hands-free calling works best when the car knows some of your contacts. I imported mine directly from my phone and then tried to call my wife’s cell phone –- she happened to be in the passenger seat next to me at the time. Regardless of the number of times I said my wife’s name (Linda), the Mazda6 couldn’t find it. Finally, I realized why: The phone had imported nearly all of my thousands of contacts, but left out my wife and her various phone numbers, including my home phone number. I blame myself, since I don’t think the car is really equipped to handle 2,000 contacts.

I resolved this small issue by reciting my wife’s phone number.

Not Your Father’s Car

The best description of the 2014 Mazda6 is "smart." Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t even need me. If I’m carrying the keys — which look nothing like keys — in my pocket, the Mazda6 knows I’m there. I press a button (a button!) on the door handle and I’m in. I press another button on the dash and the car starts; okay, I do need to put my foot on the brake before it turns over.

Once I set my 8-way motorized seat adjustments (which are heated, by the way), the car memorizes them so it can return to my preset settings with the push of a button. It can also remember my wife’s perfect seat settings, which she’ll get to try out as soon as I actually let her drive my 2014 Mazda6.

Hey, don’t judge me. This is my future car, not hers — at least for now.

Image: Mazda

Topics: cars, Mashable Choice, mazda, Mobile, reviews, Tech